Bound 'de re' pronouns and the LFs of attitude reports

Simon Charlow, Yael Sharvit

Abstract

An empirical argument is given in support of Percus & Sauerland's (2003) theory of 'de re' ascription, according to which the internal argument of "believe" is a function from concept-generators to propositions. The argument concerns pronouns in the scope of attitude verbs that are interpreted both 'de re' and as bound variables. It is argued that more traditional theories of 'de re' ascription --- specifically, theories that take the 'res' to be an internal argument of "believe" --- fail to account for such pronouns, because a pronoun cannot simultaneously be an argument of "believe" and bound by a quantifier in the scope of "believe".